Acclaimed Chinese Producer Kneels Down and Begs Theaters to Show Art House Film

Chinese producer Fang Li kneels down in an online video pleading for more theaters to show the art house film, 'Song of the Phoenix.'
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It could have been just another Chinese art house film that won critical acclaim but sank commercially. Instead, a respected producer rewrote the film’s destined storyline by falling to his knees.

Fang Li, the 63-year-old film producer and screenwriter, knelt down last Thursday night during an online video broadcast via a live-streaming app and begged theater owners nationwide to arrange more screenings of “Song of the Phoenix.” The film was directed by the late Wu Tianming, whose students include some of China’s most acclaimed auteurs, such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige.

The film tells the story of a young apprentice of the suona, a traditional Chinese musical instrument whose use is dying away in modern China. Mr. Fang and his company Laurel Films, a Beijing-based studio famous for backing independent films, invested money to help distribute the movie.

Mr. Wu passed away in 2014 soon after he finished the film’s post-production. Mr. Wu’s portfolio includes such influential works as “Old Well” (1986), which he directed, and “Red Sorghum” (1987), which he produced.

Mr. Fang himself is also behind a slate of award-winning Chinese independent films, including “Summer Palace” (2006) and “Buddha Mountain” (2010), as well as some other commercially successful films including “The Continent” by Han Han, one of China’s most prolific writers.

Due to a lack of financial support, the release of “Song of the Phoenix” was delayed until early this month — on the same day that Disney’s “Captain America: Civil War” opened in China. The latter has since dominated China’s theaters, grossing more than 1 billion yuan ($153 million) so far.

Though China’s film market has seen explosive growth, art house films still have a hard time thriving, as most local audiences prefer to watch star-studded commercial films. Theaters thus end up squeezing out art house films in order to make space for more screenings of profitable commercial films.

In the video, which as of Tuesday afternoon had been viewed by about 63,000 people since it first went online, Mr. Fang said he understood that theater mangers are under pressure to make money. Still, he said he hoped they would “do (themselves) proud” by helping to “realize director Wu Tianming’s wish.”

“I don’t expect this film to gross a lot, but more viewers should be able to watch this film,” Mr. Fang said in the video, adding that by that point, the film had only received about 1% of slots in China’s theaters. It only grossed 1.54 million yuan ($236,000) in the three days after it opened.

Mr. Fang begged theater owners to arrange at least one prime-time slot last weekend. “Hundreds of people worked hard to prepare for this film over the past eight months, hoping that it could get a slot during prime-time period,” Mr. Fang said, adding that he would “use China’s most traditional way” – kowtowing, with his forehead pressed to the ground– to express his gratitude to theater managers for the arrangement.

The video has been widely discussed on social media in recent days. A slate of the country’s most influential filmmakers and opinion leaders, including Chinese actress Yao Chen, who has nearly 80 million followers on Sina Weibo, voiced support and offered tickets to their followers in order to get more people to see the film.

In a separate video released online and now being shown in theaters before screenings of Mr. Wu’s film, Mr. Scorsese delivers a personal appeal to viewers.

“Now, two years after the death of its creator, ‘Song of the Phoenix’ is finally being released in China,” Mr. Scorsese says. “I am urging you to take the opportunity to see this lovely film in theaters, as it was meant to be seen, and to remember its creator, Wu Tianming, a true giant of cinema.”

Some supporters have also called for more art house theaters to be built to make room for independent films. “It could help solve this problem at a fundamental level,” said Xu Zheng, director of the record-breaking comedy “Lost in Thailand.” “You can’t kneel down for each picture, right?”

Some of the country’s major theater operators also responded with support. Leading Chinese film studio Huayi Brothers said in a statement last Friday that it would arrange prime-time slots for this film in its theaters to “escort the master’s work by real actions.”

The plea soon worked to boost the film’s box office receipts. It raked in over 22.6 million yuan ($3.4 million) from Friday to Sunday for a total tally of nearly 29 million yuan ($4.4 million) by Monday, according to Maoyan, a leading online ticketing app, which also shows that the film received over 7% of screening slots in Chinese theaters on Sunday.

Mr. Fang on Monday told China Real Time by phone that the weekend’s results had been “absolutely beyond our expectations.” He said his move was not for his own personal financial benefit, as all the film’s proceeds would go to a film fund in honor of Mr. Wu to support young filmmakers.

Still, some on social media criticized Mr. Fang for “morally kidnapping” theaters. Mr. Fang said he would not “care about any criticism” for “standing up to save this film.”

Given the good box-office result, would he make such an effort for any other film in the future, including his company’s own films?

“Absolutely not,” said Mr. Fang. “I did it because director Wu Tianming had left us.”

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